ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[Waterlooer]

Does anyone know when King between Wellington and the underpass will start? Nothing has happened here so far:

[KevinL]

I was also up on Borden this morning, like Canard. A bit further down from Courtland is the Iron Horse Trail crossing, which has a temporary routing:





Heated tarp enclosures are getting to be standard issue, but here's the Borden entries:

[KevinL]

But for something different, here's Kitchener Market station.

[Canard]

Up at Waterloo Park, by the Perimeter Institute, the Harsco Mk IV Tamper was hard at work, precisely aligning the track which was laid yesterday.

   

   

   

   

Sadly, some joggers felt that the rules didn't apply to them, and decided to run right behind the thing, while it was in motion - if I was closer, I would have yelled at them.  The construction workers just stood there with "WTF" looks on their faces.  Safety first, people! There are signs and fences everywhere saying "NO TRESSPASSING", "DANGER", "KEEP OUT", "HARDHATS REQUIRED IN THIS AREA", etc - and they just danced through as if the world was their oyster.

   

[timc]

That's a pretty nice house they've switched to using now.  Any chance they can work these things into an old facade, or do they necessitate a tear down?  Asked another way, when they are located right on a visible property that is likely to be a developed main street area, are they bothering to make them fit into the streetscape?

I recognize that house as Charles Belair's old studio. It's a nice old building. I wonder about keeping the facade as well.

[timc]

The King / Erb intersection officially will not need to be closer this year, thank god

Why would it? There's no track going in there.

This fits into the Uptown Streetscape project and some underground connections that need to be done at that intersection. Instead of having two separate closures, any part that GrandLinq was going to do in that project is now being taken off the table.

[Pheidippides]

Orange tenting snakes south on Charles today:
   

New tracks beside PI today:
   

I was also in Uptown Waterloo today:
-most of the pavement has been stripped and removed
-they have a number of large trenches
-hydro seems to be done their work right at King and William and moved east along William
-a number of temporary or new services seem to be being prepared for installation

[KevinL]

Orange tenting snakes south on Charles today:

That went up fast! It was still short of Gaukel when I came by this morning.

[TMKM94]

Does anyone know when Construction of the LRT track/ion stop will take place at Waterloo Town Square I find it odd that it was dug up in October and they haven't done anything in the past few Months. I read that underground utilities should have been done by now and track is supposed to be installed sometime this year. I wonder why they wouldn't have filled the hole back in for temporary parking until they were ready to build the track. I work at Valumart and I was told that sales are down at least 20% since Construction started.

[timio]

Does anyone know when Construction of the LRT track/ion stop will take place at Waterloo Town Square I find it odd that it was dug up in October and they haven't done anything in the past few Months. I read that underground utilities should have been done by now and track is supposed to be installed sometime this year. I wonder why they wouldn't have filled the hole back in for temporary parking until they were ready to build the track. I work at Valumart and I was told that sales are down at least 20% since Construction started.

That station is a bit more work than other stations because they need to completely realign the Spur through the area first, which includes changing the crossing at King and Erb simultaneously to ensure minimal downtime for the freight operations. Coming south, the freight will use the southbound track, crossover to the northbound track just west of Erb/Caroline, and then split off to a separate spur just east of Caroline that travels north of the LRT line through the parking lot.

The track work is dependent on a number of other projects being ready to go: complete utility relocation on King at the Spur Line, complete utility location at Erb/Caroline, complete the track work and crossover just west of Erb/Caroline. I would guess they did the utility relocations in the parking lot to ensure it's one less thing in the way of installing the new track once all the ducks line up in a row to get 'er done.

[GtwoK]

Borden / Charles closes next monday for (presumably) track installation. Hurrah! I'm surprised, considering the absolute lack of work done on Charles from Borden to Ottawa. Most of the pavement isn't even torn up yet, if I remember correctly?

[Canard]

Well, maybe they'll curve it around and head up Charles toward downtown, but not the other way just yet.

[tomh009]

Borden / Charles closes next monday for (presumably) track installation. Hurrah! I'm surprised, considering the absolute lack of work done on Charles from Borden to Ottawa. Most of the pavement isn't even torn up yet, if I remember correctly?

How long is it closed for?  Sometime this spring Charles should be open for traffic again all the way from Victoria to Ottawa.

[Waterlooer]

Does anyone know why Conestoga and Fairway stations will have two platforms? Since they are both terminal stations, isn't only one of the platforms needed? Thanks.

[Markster]

That's a really good question.
Island platforms are commonly used at end-of-line stations, because it drastically simplifies things.  Passengers only need to wait on one platform, and the train will arrive on either side.
When metros have side-platform end-of-line stations, they tend to have one be the unloading platform, and then the train leaves the station, re-entering on the loading platform side.  However, that's clearly not going to be the case, as the tracks won't extend out past the end of the platform.

I can only imagine there will be confusion.  People won't wait on the platform until there's an train there. Or they will, and then walk right across the tracks when they find out they're on the wrong platform. Are they planning on having a train sitting idle at the end of the line at all times?  What about when there are two trains in the station, which platform are you supposed to go to?

At least the problem is (hopefully) temporary at Fairview.  Extension of the line south means that it's just a regular 2-platform station, which will be better for heavier loads anyway.  Conestoga however... is going to be that way for a while.

I suspect that it was not an operational choice. I think side platforms take up a smaller footprint (because the rails don't need to diverge) and the malls wanted as little impact to their property as possible.